Unit V. American customs and traditions

Read and translate the text:

The United States is a young country. Its written history is only a few hundred years old. It is sometimes, in feet, called the «New World». Over the last four hundred years millions of people have come to start a new life in this «New World».

Americans say that they are not afraid of new ideas. They built the first skyscrapers and they put the first man on the moon. They like to be modern. They like exciting, modern cities, new houses, and new cars.

At the same time, Americans love old things. They like to visit historic houses and museums and remember the days of the «Wild West». Americans are interested in old traditions, but they are good at making new traditions too.

The people of the United States are a mixture of many different nationalities. In one city you can find people whose parents, grandparents or great-grandparents came from China, Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and every European country. These different people brought to their new land a wonderful mixture of customs and traditions. The Germans brought Christmas trees. The Irish brought St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The Scots brought Halloween.

There are new American festivals and traditions as well as the old ones. Only Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, and the Fourth of July. Rodeos and high school homecomings only happen in the U.S.

The idea of success is important to Americans. They believe that if they work hard they can have what they want and be what they want. This is part of what they call «the American Dream».

Perhaps this is why Americans are so hard-working. They do not take many vacations. There are only five national holidays that are celebrated in every state. These are New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. On these days, government offices, post offices, and banks are closed.

There are other important public holidays but they are not celebrated everywhere. Seven states, for example, do not celebrate Columbus Day. And some special days are not public holidays at all.

Exercise 1. Find the Russian equivalents to the following words and word combinations and make English sentences of your own using them:

Skyscraper, exciting, to be interested in, to be good at, mixture, as well as, homecoming, to work hard, hard-working, perhaps, to take vocation, to celebrate, at all.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. Why is the United States called «New World»?

2. Do Americans like new or old things more?

3. What can you say about the people of the USA? In what way does the composition of the population influence the life of the country?

4. What national holidays are celebrated in every state?

5. How do you understand the concept of «the American Dream»?

6. Is there any similarity between public holidays celebrated in Russia and the USA?

Exercise 3. Read and translate the following texts. Analyzing the information say what is different comparing to Russia